David Oistrakh

David Oistrakh (1908-1974), the great Soviet violinist of the post-World War II era, has been misrepresented even by some of his staunchest admirers as being a "sensational" artist: a dramatic powerhouse of the old school, a purveyor of throbbing vibrato and the expressive devices of earlier times.

Coaxing, cajoling, beguiling, violinist Gil Shaham tried to build a case for bringing Aram Khachaturian's once-popular Violin Concerto back to the mainstream in a performance Thursday night with the Los Angeles Philharmonic. Slim chance. The Soviet Armenian composer wrote the work in 1940 for his brilliant compatriot, David Oistrakh, who championed it in performances at home and abroad during and after World War II. Audiences and Soviet officials loved it for its accessibility, Armenian-flavored sweet-and-sour melodies, Technicolor orchestration and rhythmic vitality.

KFAC-FM's change from classical music to rock and the parceling out of its record library may be a lot of things, but it is not comparable to the burning of Alexandria (as Arthur C. O'Bryne wrote in Saturday Letters, Sept. 2). In the year 415, Christians began the greatest book burning in history by torching the Alexandrian library, in which was stored virtually the accumulated science and literature of the Western world. We have little idea what masterpieces were lost forever. If the older recordings of KFAC are never heard again, I don't know what kind of loss that would be, if a loss at all. Recordings that I once thought definitive now sound frustratingly old. The Budapest Quartet is technically sloppy.

IN his brief review of Joshua Bell's new recording of Tchaikovsky's Violin Concerto ["Aural Histories, the Next Gen: Blooms in a Warmer Climate," Feb. 26], Chris Pasles wrote that the brilliant and popular American violinist "may be the first musician to open up all the traditional cuts in the last movement." He isn't, not by a long shot. The first performer of the piece, Adolph Brodsky, certainly did not make any cuts in it when he premiered the concerto in 1881. The cuts as we know them were introduced later by Leopold Auer and were observed by most of his pupils.

IN his brief review of Joshua Bell's new recording of Tchaikovsky's Violin Concerto ["Aural Histories, the Next Gen: Blooms in a Warmer Climate," Feb. 26], Chris Pasles wrote that the brilliant and popular American violinist "may be the first musician to open up all the traditional cuts in the last movement." He isn't, not by a long shot. The first performer of the piece, Adolph Brodsky, certainly did not make any cuts in it when he premiered the concerto in 1881. The cuts as we know them were introduced later by Leopold Auer and were observed by most of his pupils.

Coaxing, cajoling, beguiling, violinist Gil Shaham tried to build a case for bringing Aram Khachaturian's once-popular Violin Concerto back to the mainstream in a performance Thursday night with the Los Angeles Philharmonic. Slim chance. The Soviet Armenian composer wrote the work in 1940 for his brilliant compatriot, David Oistrakh, who championed it in performances at home and abroad during and after World War II. Audiences and Soviet officials loved it for its accessibility, Armenian-flavored sweet-and-sour melodies, Technicolor orchestration and rhythmic vitality.

May 5, 1991 | HERBERT GLASS, Herbert Glass writes about music for The Times. and

Serge Prokofiev's nominal big year--he was born 100 years ago--has brought no major recorded or scholarly revelations. But then there may be nothing of a sensational nature to reveal: no lost, great operas (no great operas, period), no clarifying Urtext of some heretofore inscrutable symphony. The surprises of 1991 have involved refreshing views, from unexpected sources, of well-known or under-appreciated scores.

Cerritos Center for the Performing Arts, 12700 Center Court Drive, will continue its film series from the works of French filmmaker Bruno Monsaingeon with "David Oistrakh, Artist of the People" at 7 p.m. March 20. Monsaingeon's most recent musical film, about the late pianist Sviatoslav Richter, "Richter, the Enigma," will close the series at 7 p.m. April 10. The films will be introduced by Wesley O. Brustad, deputy director of the San Diego Museum of Art.

Artur Balsam, 88, an ensemble pianist known for years as one of the nation's foremost accompanists. He began his career in the early 1930s accompanying violinist Yehudi Menuhin. For more than 30 years--until the 1970s--Balsam was heard with such other great musicians as Nathan Milstein, David Oistrakh, Zino Francescatti, Pierre Fournier and Mstislav Rostropovich. Also considered a great chamber player, he performed often with the Kroll, Juilliard, Budapest and other string quartets.

May 5, 1991 | HERBERT GLASS, Herbert Glass writes about music for The Times. and

Serge Prokofiev's nominal big year--he was born 100 years ago--has brought no major recorded or scholarly revelations. But then there may be nothing of a sensational nature to reveal: no lost, great operas (no great operas, period), no clarifying Urtext of some heretofore inscrutable symphony. The surprises of 1991 have involved refreshing views, from unexpected sources, of well-known or under-appreciated scores.

David Oistrakh (1908-1974), the great Soviet violinist of the post-World War II era, has been misrepresented even by some of his staunchest admirers as being a "sensational" artist: a dramatic powerhouse of the old school, a purveyor of throbbing vibrato and the expressive devices of earlier times.

KFAC-FM's change from classical music to rock and the parceling out of its record library may be a lot of things, but it is not comparable to the burning of Alexandria (as Arthur C. O'Bryne wrote in Saturday Letters, Sept. 2). In the year 415, Christians began the greatest book burning in history by torching the Alexandrian library, in which was stored virtually the accumulated science and literature of the Western world. We have little idea what masterpieces were lost forever. If the older recordings of KFAC are never heard again, I don't know what kind of loss that would be, if a loss at all. Recordings that I once thought definitive now sound frustratingly old. The Budapest Quartet is technically sloppy.

In his Jan. 24 review of the Los Angeles Philharmonic ["Major Soloist, Minor Work"], Chris Pasles compared Gil Shaham's performance of Aram Khachaturian's Violin Concerto with that of the piece's dedicatee and its original champion -- the legendary David Oistrakh -- stating that "Shaham, unlike the stern-faced Oistrakh, displayed exemplary warmth in his playing." If warmth of playing is measured by the number of beatific smiles on the soloist's face, then Shaham, who is without a doubt a very fine violinist, would certainly be in a class all by himself.

Two different aspects of the state of the art of fiddling are represented by 30-year-old Anne-Sophie Mutter, with the Berg Violin Concerto as her vehicle (Deutsche Grammophon 437 093), and 46-year-old Gidon Kremer, in a hand-in-glove partnership with pianist Martha Argerich, in Prokofiev's two duo sonatas (Deutsche Grammophon 431 803).